27 April: Financial reservations are not resigned to The City as a surprising number of UK employees demand a shakeup concerning the way corporate money is spent.
A recent survey by Powwownow highlights almost a third of UK workers feel dismayed by their company's overspending. Furthermore, the same new figures reveal employees are equally critical of their boss's personal spending habits and would rather see the money being spent on directors' salaries reinvested by their company in to more staff and training.
A cross section of 1,000 UK employees was asked the question, 'How do you perceive the spending habits of the company you work for?' to which a disagreeable 30% of respondents indicated as "too much" or "excessive".
These findings support the concept behind Powwownow's new "More sense than money" advertising campaign which aims to challenge business inertia and unnecessary spending. By creating an obnoxious banker-esque character by the name of Cecil Goldwell to epitomise all that is wrong and backwards with business, the free conference call company has been challenging business people to act in the opposite manner since their campaign began early February. In doing so they've managed to spark a huge reaction and gain significant cut through, the result of which has been an 86% increase in traffic to their website and a 61% increase in new registrations.
According to the 2011 Employee Engagement Report, 74% of European employees polled trust their manager, but only 51% trust their organisation's senior leader; a fact that is made more compelling by Powwownow's insights which expose the relationship between salaries earned and inequality felt. For example, only 2% of workers earning over £80,000 felt their boss or company had 'more money than sense', whereas that figure rose dramatically to 23% for those who earn under that amount.
Powwownow's survey also revealed that if employees were to take things in to their own hands, 38% would spend more money on training and a further 30% would spend more money on staff.
"All businesses are being asked to do more with less staff and less money, whilst still trying to maintain a profit," says Powwownow co-founder Andrew Pearce, "And although we understand there are many happy offices in the UK, an increasing number appear to be plagued by employee resentment at either their company's and/or boss's over-spending in unnecessary areas."
